The date for the cochlear implant activation was May 31, 2016. I asked a friend to videotape the big moment. “Everyone cries when their implant is turned on.” I wanted it documented.
Assembly and Set-Up
As I sat across the desk of my audiologist, I felt slightly intimidated by the number of small boxes she had to open – each containing a component of the implant. “Sort of like a Legos puzzle,” she remarked.
After the device was finally assembled, the first order of business was the strength of the magnet that holds the transmitter to the magnet implanted under my skin on the skull. There were 3 strengths of magnets. The first was too light, the second one was much better. The strongest magnet can cause the skin to break open – certainly something I did not want to experience. So we settled for the second strength magnet.
Once the magnet strength decided upon, the audiologist attached the transmitter to my head. It hung there while the audiologist played a bunch of beeps from her computer into the ear to determine my volume tolerance.
Cochlear Implant (CI) Activation
Then the moment came. Turn it on! Drum roll. Was it wonderful? Did I cry? Nope. It was more like the flight of the bumblebees. As the cochlear implant expectations indicated would happen, the sounds were a series of buzzes and robotic type of noises. I realized that the many YouTube videos I saw of people crying when their implant activated were those people who had been totally deaf hearing SOMETHING for the first time. Obviously, that was not my experience as I was never deaf. I was profoundly hard of hearing in both ears prior to the implant. Now the left ear is totally deaf without the device activated.
The audiologist explained, again, some of the realities of being a CI recipient. That is, it would take a considerable amount of hearing rehabilitation for the brain to figure out what all the sounds being transmitted through the processor meant. I was pretty disheartened – there was nothing I could understand through the cochlear. Nothing. Just buzzes. We made a return appointment for two weeks later for further adjustments and testing.
Environmental Sounds
Upon walking outside down the busy street of Sunset boulevard, I noted that the CI muted the traffic, which normally is intolerably loud. That was nice. That evening the cochlear was picking up all sorts of sounds. All sounding exactly alike – bumblebees. I struggled to identify the direction of the sounds while the brain struggled to identify the sound. Running water sounded exactly like someone talking. What I remember most vividly is identifying a sound as my husband’s slippers shuffling on the floor. THAT is a sound I had never heard before. So while nothing was clear, it was obvious I was hearing sounds of a higher frequency and greater volume. But, overall, I was not thrilled.
The Video
Here is the video that captures highlights of this significant, but disappointing, day of the cochlear implant activation.
